People's Democracy

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THE decision came two days after the union petroleum minister, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, claimed that petrol would cost no more than Rs 18 a litre if no duty is imposed. The petroleum ministry that has been demanding duty cuts on petroleum products finally succumbed under pressure from the finance ministry, which rejected outright the demand for duty revision.

In view of the surge in crude oil prices and to provide a cushion effect to the consumer, the petroleum ministry had sought halving of the import duty on crude oil to five per cent and slashing customs duty on petrol and diesel to 15 per cent from 20 per cent. The ministry had also suggested nil excise duty on LPG and kerosene to contain the effect of surge in crude oil prices. The finance ministry remained adamant on no cut on duty structure.

--- The Statesman, November 5

THE Delhi High Court today (November 4) passed strictures on Reliance Infocomm for depriving BSNL of over Rs 200 crore by passing off international calls from the US as domestic traffic.

Ironically, Reliance Infocomm got rapped on its own petition. Justice Vikramjit Sen declined to restrain BSNL from carrying out its threat of not connecting any of the calls originating from the private operator’s network unless it clears its arrears by tomorrow…….

The High Court today held that it was “not in dispute that by changing an international call to a domestic one, the liability of Reliance Infocomm towards BSNL has been drastically reduced.” BSNL alleged that Reliance Infocomm had made incoming international calls look like local calls by tampering with what is known as “caller line identification.”

--- The Indian Express, November 5

THE victory of George W Bush in the US presidential election has sent out a wave of dismay across Canada where anti-Bush sentiment had been riding high during the run-up to the elections.

Disgusted callers jammed the telephone lines of television channels, some going so far as to wish more trouble for the US in the days ahead so that the “American public is taught a lesson” for bringing Bush back to power. Pressured by the frantic pace of events, TV anchors failed to block these messages, unwittingly allowing hate mail on programmes……

Mr Bush sweep at the hustings led to another round of acrimony between the liberals led by Canadian prime minister Paul Martin and the opposition which has been charging the outspoken Martin colleagues of straining the country’s ties with the US. In the House of Commons, opposition leader Stephen Harper accused Mr Martin of falling to stamp out the “anti-American rhetoric” in the Liberal Party. Mr Harper criticised one Liberal MP for blaming America for global terrorism, forcing Mr Martin to put up a spirited defence.

“We are not anti-American; Canadians are not anti-American. We are pro-Canadian. And I will tell you what pro-Canadian means. It means we would not go down to the United States and use an American television network to slam Canada. It means we would not write articles in the Wall Street Journal criticising our country. We will have our debates within Canada,” Mr Martin said, referring to Mr Harper’s appearance last year on Fox News and a letter in the Wall Street Journal criticising Canada for not supporting the war in Iraq.

 --- National Herald, November 5